He came up with the best parts of the Alien mythos, as well as directed the singular Return of the Living Dead. Respect.
[pours 40 oz. onto lawn]
Respect, indeed.
And I just recommended one of his films to someone on this board the other day …
He worked on Heavy Metal which was a great animated film
Goodbye sir

When “Alien” premiered, I was made aware of Mr. O’Bannon as a rather tortured soul who had poured a lot of his frustrations into writing the ultimate frightening movie after “Dark Star” had helped put him on the map.
He certainly had his hand in some big-name projects along the way, but one got the idea from reading about him that he didn’t really “fit in” in Hollywood.
Whatever else happened, in 1979 he gave us all two of the scariest hours ever put on film, and one of the greatest female heroines as well (even though all the characters in the original were written to be either men or women.)
I am sure Ellen Ripley could have coined a nice farewell phrase.
R.I.P, and thank you for your good work.
Claus.
Claus.
This is a a loss.
Return of the Living Dead is possibly one of my all time guilty pleasure cult films.
No need to feel guilty about liking RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. It’s a great little film.
“Send more paramedics.”
Today I watched DARK STAR, just to see him and how he acted: he’s really was the highlight of that still wonderful and funny movie.
RIP.
I’d heard he was ill. It’s a bummer to hear of his passing, though it’s nice to see he had some respect for his unique works.
YouTube user PinbackFreak was nice enough to post all of Dark Star. I imagine everybody who swings by a Dan O’Bannon RIP thread has seen it, but in case someone hasn’t, here’s a link to part 1
That really sucks. I finally got a hold of the Alien Quadrology set and hearing him talk about his film and how dedicated he was to it was great. (I loved that story where he initially refused to go to the premiere and drove around LA the entire day, trying to ignore it.)
Think I’ll dig out my copy of Dark Star and give it a watch. He died at 63 on Steven Spielberg’s 63rd birthday.
TOTAL RECALL. Wow! Great Philip K. Dick adaptation which I never gave enough admiration to till recently. Not a movie I like as much as BLADE RUNNER, all said and done, but I more accurate Dick adaptation, even while being uncharacteristically action-driven compared to that author’s original material.
Dark Star is one of the great cult movies of all times. Carpenter and O’Bannon made the film I and I think numerous people wish to do in their early years of enthusiasm in any profession of cinema.
Vocalities
In case anybody was a fan of his work, figured they might want to know.
He was 63.